Boekverslag: Oom Oswald
General assignments
Give a summary of the story in about 250 words.
Oswald is a man that discovers the electrifying properties of the Sudanese Blister Beetle. This beetle can make you very horny. At first he sells the Blister Beetle to men that want to do their women a pleasure. But when Oswald meets Yasmin, a very sexy and beautiful woman, he gets an idea. His idea is to use the Blister Beetle and Yasmin to collect sperm of famous men all over the world. And then he can sell the sperm to women who want a baby of that famous man. They can even have a baby of a man that?s already dead. But then Oswald and Yasmin immediately discover a problem. The problem is that they can?t keep the sperm, because the sperm will die after some hours. But then they meet A.H. Woresley. He is doing experiments about the same problem. Together they find out how to keep the sperm. Then the masterplan can begin. The three of them make a list of all the men they want to collect sperm of. In the list are a lot of kings and famous writers. Examples are Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Pablo Picasso. The plan is that Oswald and Yasmin travel to the famous men, and collect the sperm by giving the man in a secret way the Blister Beetle so he will get so horny that he will almost rape Yasmin. Just before he is about to do that Yasmin will quickly put a condom on him so she can catch the sperm and bring it to Oswald who putts it into tubes and then putts it in to a briefcase that keeps the sperm fresh. When to briefcase is full they go back to Woresley who putts the sperm into a box that keeps the sperm fresh. The house where they keep al the sperm is called Semen?s Home. The adventures of Yasmin and Oswald are very funny. In the end Yasmin and Woresley betrayed Oswald by taking nearly al the sperm and running away. Still Oswald becomes a very rich man, by starting a Blister Beetle factory in Sudan.
Could the story have really happened? What is real and what isn?t? Give reasons for your answer.
No, the story can?t have really happened. There is no such thing as a Sudanese Blister Beetle. And the story is all based on the Blister Beetle, so the story can?t have really happened. But if the Blister Beetle would have been a true existing animal, then the story could have happened even if that sounds strange.
Indicate at least three different themes in the book. Give reasons for your answer.
The mane theme is absolutely sex. Everything is about sex. The Blister Beetle is about sex. The masterplan is all about sex.
Another theme is journey. Yasmin and Oswald travel all over the world to collect the sperm. So you can say that journey is also a theme.
What also is an important theme, is experiment. Oswald does experiments to find out the right dose of Blister Beetle. He has to do this because when a human gets too much of it, it can be fatal. Another important experiment, is the experiment of Woresley. He tries and has success how to keep sperm.
Indicate when the book started to interest you.
Right in the beginning the book was boring. I didn?t understand it. The book started to interest me when the Blister Beetle appeared in the book. That was in chapter one. So I didn?t have to read much until it got interesting.
Food- for- thought assignments
Write a different ending to the story.
The real ending is that when the three mane characters have collected enough sperm to get very rich and decide to split up for a month to rest down, Cornelius and Yasmin run away with nearly al the sperm and leave Oswald with nearly nothing. Still Oswald gets very rich. He goes back to Sudan to start a Blister Beetle factory. With this he gets rich.
A different ending could be (I will start at the moment that Oswald gets back to the Semen?s Home after the rest) N.B. Oswald = I.
I was happy and walked to the door of the Semen?s Home. When I went in I saw Yasmin and Woresley busy with the sperm. They were putting the tubes in a briefcase. I ask what they are doing. They look at me and say that they want to sell some sperm now, because they need money. I think that?s not such a bad idea, so I agree. The three of us go to America to sell the sperm of the king of Spain and the sperm of Sigmund Freud. We nearly sell all of it. We made two millions dollars and went on a big vacation to the Bahamas.